Urban autorities decry low payment
They raised this concern on Wednesday during a meeting at the Ntungamo district hall.
According to Richard Ndyana, the Kisoro municipality mayor who is also the regional chairperson for UAAU southwestern chapter, their current payment standards leave less to be desired in comparison with their obligations.
Ndyana said that the expectation of these leaders to supervise technocrats who earn more than them is a real mockery.
He also appealed to the government to avail them with vehicles for effective transportation in their areas of operation.
“We wonder why the government finds it important to avail transport to LCV chairpersons, RDCs and other authorities neglecting the managers of towns that give the good face of districts and regions. When we are not considered for transport I feel very embarrassed,” he said.
Robert Kakyebezi, the Mbarara city mayor noted that government had promised them vehicles sometime back but they were later told that the money had been channeled to other emergencies.
“We kept waiting for the solution after the emergencies but even as we speak nothing much has ever been done in meeting our demand for transportation means. If you put this together with our earnings, the whole thing appears regrettable,” he said.
“The Local government act puts a municipality at a lower level than the district leadership. When we got more cities, district leaders came in to intervene in our strategies and plans not knowing that we should be independent,” he revealed.
Kakyebezi called for the amendment of the Local government act so as to clearly stipulate the limitations of local councils and urban authorities.
“We have specific functions in urban centres like garbage collection and street lighting among others. If any of the above is not done, you will never hear a district chairperson blamed but rather the mayor. This act needs to show them their governance limits so as to control further diasgreements,” he added.
New Policies
In the same engagement, urban authorities were encouraged to implement the new laws that will be governing their areas as soon as possible.
Silver Tindizarira, a Principal Inspector in the Ministry of Local Government asked urban authorities to implement the taxi/bus park reforms in their towns so as to boost their revenue collection.
“All PSVs will annually apply or register with the Ministry of Works and Transport to get a specific route of their choice. All the annual fees will be made to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA),” he said.
Tindizara added that PSVs within districts and those doing town service will be required to pay Shs.720, 000= annually while those plying within town service and districts will pay an annual charge of Shs.840, 000= which is shared between the town and destination or origin in a ratio of 60:40 respectively.
Local Governments and town authorities will specifically designate an authorized to enforce or impound any vehicle operating without Park user fees.
The same policy puts it that whoever fails to pay or obstructs an authorized officer on duty commits an offence and will be liable to a fine of Shs.200,000= or a one year jail sentence. f
